Page 171 - Edo: Art in Japan, 1615–1868

In about 1830 to 1832 Hokusai created his masterpiece, the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji.
These works belong both to the very old tradition of famous place pictures and to the brand new genre
of souvenir prints. There was a boom in travel after restrictions were lifted, and many of these prints
were purchased by vicarious travelers or by wayfarers seeking mementos (see Melinda Takeuchi's essay).
The views of Japan's symbol, Mount Fuji, seen fromTótómi (cat. 106) and Kajikazawa (cat. 107) could be
thought of as modern echoes of the fisherman and woodcutter theme. Hokusai's figures, however, are

not romanticized recluses engaged in lofty thought while isolated from the maddening rituals of civic
life. They are real people of the time, captured by the artist before the backdrop of a mountain that was
also a god. The pragmatic attitudes of the townsman artist are mixed with his awe for the lofty volcano
i / o at Japan's heart.

T H E C L O T H E S Designs with worker themes were featured on another art form in the Edo period — the mobile, three- cat. 108
THAT M A K E T H E dimensional canvas of the kosode (short-sleeved kimono). In the late seventeenth century Miyazaki Kosode luith design of
Rice Cultivation
P E R S O N Yúzen developed a new technique for paste-resist dyeing. Over the next century so-called yüzen dyeing in the Four Seasons,
early nineteenth century,
evolved to allow pictorial effects such as shading and leaving reserved areas and outlines in white. paste-resist dye on
The minute, genre-inspired designs seen in paintings and lacquerware were adapted to kosode design. figured silk satin,
7
7
i67.2Xi24(65 /8X48 /8),
Customers chose designs for their garments from pattern books (hinagatabon). Tokyo National Museum
Although farmwork designs appeared in eighteenth-century pattern books, a kosode with the
Rice Cultivation in the Four Seasons theme (cat. 108) from the first half of the nineteenth century is a
rare survivor of this type. In the manner of the period the design ranges around the lower half of the
kosode. Scenes of cultivation and harvesting are arranged not according to their true order but purely
for their compositional fit. The pictorial style is that of Morikage, and the farmers are in dress of the
Genroku era (1688 -1704), perhaps indicating a source in earlier painting or a model book for painters.
The pictorial effects developed by yüzen dyers had the unanticipated result of popularizing painterly
compositions in embroidered works. This phenomenon is illustrated by a wrapping cloth (fukusa) with

a Rice Cultivation in the Four Seasons motif (fig. 7). The minute detailing of costumes and tools, and
the shading effects from graded colors of threads show the influence of yüzen dyeing on embroidery.
One nineteenth-century long-sleeved kimono, or/urisode (cat. 109), displays at its lower edges
scenes of women tending tea plants. Of particular interest are the ink-wash effects on the reed mats
and the detailed illustrations of the textile techniques that have been used on the costumes of the tea
cultivators. Uji, a city south of Kyoto famous for tea growing, might have inspired the furisode's design,
which could thus represent a specific place as well as a picturesque genre scene.
Workers of the Edo period frequently decorated their bodies with costume. Four fantastically
painted firemen's coats of the late Edo period (cats, no -113) reveal how by packaging oneself in certain
clothing a person could become a moving work of art. These heavily stitched and padded jackets —
part of an ensemble that included a hood, breeches, and gloves — would be soaked before the wearers
went out to fight fires. The jackets were indigo dyed on the outside and hand painted on the interior;
the name of the brigade was dyed on the lapel. After the fire was put out, the jacket would be turned
inside out and the interior design representing the brigade would be displayed in hopes that the group
would reap rewards for their success. The heroic motifs seen on these examples include a rain dragon,
a dragon and tiger, the god of thunder, and a figure who is probably the monk Mongaku. Any of these